


a dream is a wish

by hanbunnotsuki



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Lance's Birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-11-22 21:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11389122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanbunnotsuki/pseuds/hanbunnotsuki
Summary: It's Lance's first birthday ever since the whole thing with Voltron happened. He's far away from home, and yet he still spends it with family.





	a dream is a wish

**Author's Note:**

> Let's all pretend Shiro didn't go missing for just today. 
> 
> Happy birthday Lance, my best boy! May you find happiness wherever you are.

“Lance! Happy birthday! Oh, I still can’t believe you’ve grown this much.”

“Mom?” Lance says in confusion, though still moving to raise his arms to return the tight hug his mother is enveloping him in. “What are you doing here?" 

“What do you mean what are we doing here? To celebrate your birthday, of course, little bro!” Another voice chimes in, clapping a hand on Lance’s shoulder. When he turns, it’s his sister’s familiar sunny grin that greets him. “You know we’ll never miss your special day!” 

“Lance! Lance! Come over here!” His little niece is jumping up and down in excitement in a distance, waving both of her arms above her head. “It’s time for the cake!” 

“Come on Lance, we haven’t got all day!” His nephew jumps in, shouting.

And there is indeed, a cake. A birthday cake, topped with lit candles, waiting to be blown. And next to the cake stand the other members of his family—his brother, his other older sister, his brother in law, his aunt, his grandparents.

“You’re all here…”  

“Of course we’re here, Lance. We wouldn’t miss your birthday party for anything.” His grandmother’s gentle smile reminds him how she used to comb his hair when he was a boy, with the same smile always gracing her face.

“Another year older, huh, Lance? So you got a girlfriend or a boyfriend yet?” His brother in law comments, waggling his eyebrows teasingly. His face then contorts in pain when his sister elbows his side.

“Can’t you be mature for one second?”

“Blow the candles and make a wish, Lance.” His father beckons him to come closer, and Lance does.

The sight of his family makes Lance’s heart ache with its familiarity. Their bantering, their voices, and even just their presence. He should be smiling happily right now, ecstatic for being surrounded by the people he loves and the people who love him.

But for some reason, Lance can’t.   

Lance feels like crying. 

“I want to have the biggest piece of cake!” Lance is standing in front of the birthday cake now, his niece to his right, already holding a plate to claim her share of the cake. Instead of responding, Lance just stares at the dancing light of the candles.

“Go make a wish!” Someone cries out. 

And so, Lance shuts his eyes. He breathes in, filling his lungs with air, before pushing it all out in one go 

 _I wish. I wish…_  

Lance wakes up to the beeping sound of his alarm, tears streaming down the sides of his face. His chest feels hollow, as if someone had ripped it out of him and c

 _It’s a dream. It’s just a dream._ He groggily scrubs his tears away, hands automatically moving to silent the alarm with practiced ease. Exhaling a shaky sigh, Lance sits up and fiddles with the phone Pidge has lent to him. He checks the date on Earth. 

 _July 28th. Hey, today’s my birthday._  

Recalling the remnants of his dream, Lance wants to drown himself back into sorrow. The dream had been sweet until the harsh bitterness of reality slaps him straight in the face. It feels like there’s lead in his chest, weighing his body down, dragging him to collapse into bed and bawl himself into a crying mess. But he swallows it all in and only lets a sad sniffle to escape. 

He’s a Paladin of Voltron. The person the Blue Lion has chosen to pilot her. He can’t afford to break, not now. 

Hauling himself out of bed, Lance walks to the door, triggering the sensor that slides it open and takes a peek of the hallway. When he’s sure the coast is clear, he scurries off to the bathroom, hoping that he won’t bump into anyone on his way. He doesn’t want to deal with his friends questioning the tear streaks running down his face right now. 

So he quickly washes off his face, squinting at the mirror to make sure that he’s gotten rid of even the slightest sign that he’s been crying. 

“Looking good, Lance my man!” Lance finger guns at his reflection in the mirror, but it looks weak, even to himself. He heaves out a defeated sigh.

 _Happy birthday to me._  

Tilting his face to the left and to the right, discerning it from several angles, Lance finally deems himself presentable to the public. He can’t be bothered returning to his room, so he foregoes changing and opts to march his way toward the bridge in all his pajamas’ glory. It’s his birthday, so he can do what he wants, no matter if Allura protests about wearing appropriate clothing. Lance just wants to feel comfy.

“Good morning—huh?”

The bridge is empty, the castle ship currently running on autopilot. Lance finds it odd. There’s usually someone on the bridge; most of the time it’s Coran, going through the castle’s maintenance scans, or Allura, running checks on the system.

Lance then checks the common room, also to find it empty. He checks the shuffle bay for Pidge, the training deck for Keith, the kitchen for Hunk, the Black Lion hangar for Shiro, only to find them all empty. Even the mice are nowhere to be found. It’s not just odd, the whole situation is getting eerie. 

“Where is everyone?” He mutters under his breath, his brows knitting in bafflement.  

A loud rumble originating from his stomach stops Lance in the middle of his tracks. He’s been so focused on his quest to find his friends that he’d forgotten to feed himself breakfast. _Hope Hunk’s prepared something in the dining room. I still can’t get the hang of the kitchen here._

Lance turns around and is now on a new quest to find his hungry stomach some food. When he reaches the dining hall and the doors slide open, he finds the room covered in darkness.

“Hey, who turned off the lights–”

“SURPRISE!” The lights are suddenly on, blinding Lance for a moment. He closes his eyes, then opening them slowly. When his eyes have adjusted, he can see that all of his friends are here.

“Huh?” Bewildered by the unexpected turn of events, that’s the only response Lance can manage as he takes in the scene. 

There’s a big banner hanging from the ceiling, with ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANCE!’ written on it in big fonts. There are also balloons and streamers, in many different colors, decorating the walls. His friends are wearing party hats—even the mice are sporting miniature, tiny hats. He wonders where they get those props from.

And then there’s a birthday cake.

It’s different from the one in his dream. This one is a two-tiered cake, probably handmade by Hunk, and is mainly white and blue in color. And it even has a tiny Blue Lion standing tall on top of it. It looks amazing. 

The others are looking expectant, probably anticipating another response from Lance beyond his simple ‘huh’.

_Oh, right. Act surprised, smile, say how thankful you are. Don’t cry. Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t–_

And of course, Lance cries.

“Oh no! Lance, you okay buddy?” Hunk quickly hurries to his side, looking flustered.

“You said he’s going to be happy if we do this ‘surprise party’!” Coran also comes near to pat his back, telling Lance that it’s going to be okay.

“I am!” Lance squawks out between his gasps. “I am happy!”

“Then can’t you show it by, uh, not crying?” Keith says, the awkward asshole, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant.

“Keith!” Pidge hisses and slams her elbow into Keith’s side, making him wince out in pain. Serves him right. “Can’t you be more delicate!?”

“Here, have some drink.” Shiro appears by his side to offer Lance a glass of water, which he gratefully accepts, gulping it down in one go.

“Thanks, Shiro. And it’s fine, I’m okay.” Lance tries to sound assuring, though his friends look unconvinced. “Seriously, I am! Those were happy tears I was shedding! This is a surprise party! I was surprised! All is good.”

“If you say so, dude,” Hunk says, shrugging his shoulders. “Oh, and happy birthday!”

Hunk wraps his arms around Lance, pulling him into a hug. The force of the hold wrings out a laugh from the birthday boy, and he squeezes back, breathing out his thanks. One by one, the others take turns wishing Lance a happy birthday, every single one of them giving him a warm hug, even Keith. With each hug, the weight that has been sitting in the center Lance’s chest lifts, until he can no longer feel it at the end. 

“We wanted to put candles on the cake, but Allura said that we can’t,” Pidge says casually, throwing a glance at Allura’s direction.

“I don’t get how Earthlings celebrate their birthdays by creating a fire hazard. It’s so bizarre.” Allura shakes her head, refusing to comprehend the lack of logic in earth’s birthday tradition.  

“You may not get to blow candles, but I believe you still get to make a wish,” Shiro says with a smile.

Lance turns to regard the cake.

He thinks of his dream, of how much he misses his family back on earth. With the whole thing with fighting a war against a space empire and exploring new worlds one could never imagine, sometimes Lance gets distracted enough from thinking about it. And sometimes, the longing creeps in and stabs into his heart completely out of the blue, just like earlier.

When the loneliness becomes unbearable, he needs to remind himself that even though he’s far away from home, he’s found a place where he belongs.

That he has his bond with his lion, that he’s part of a team that defends the universe, that he has friends who care for him enough to throw him a birthday party and who comfort him when he’s upset. That there’s a warmth that can be found, even in the cold, faraway outer space.

That even here, he’s not alone. That he's surrounded by people who will be there for him no matter what—his newly-found family.

He’s had adventures that no one on earth could even believe, and he can’t wait to tell them all when he gets home.

Lance closes his eyes. 

_I wish..._


End file.
